Sununu says federal bank bailout sends wrong message
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Mar. 20—MANCHESTER — The federal bailout of troubled banks sent the wrong message, Gov. Chris Sununu said in remarks to the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Monday night.
Sununu said the Biden administration should not have pledged to cover all losses after the failures of the Silicon Valley Bank in California and Signature Bank in New York.
"What this tells banks is if you made really bad investments then we are going to back your play," Sununu said at the State of the State Forum at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
Later Sununu said, "I think the entire banking system is going to have its challenges."
Dartmouth Health sponsored the State of the State Forum and Scott Spradling served as the moderator.
Sununu, 48, who has said he will not decide until this summer whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, talked about issues ranging from the economy to energy to affordable housing.
Sununu addressed the economy saying that there is a "massive real estate bubble" out there because the owners of many office buildings will keep losing money because many employees are working remotely.
"I think the country is going to stagnate economically," said Sununu.
But the nation's economy is healthier than many Republican national leaders claim it is, Sununu said.
"You can't say the economy is terrible. We aren't feeling that. Inflation is high but wages are high, job opportunity is high, unemployment is relatively low," Sununu said.
"I do think things are going to slowly get worse and stagnate over time."
New Hampshire came closer to brownouts this winter than most people realize, Sununu said, and the state avoided them only because the winter was not as cold as it could have been.
Energy prices will remain high for at least the next few years, he said.
"Next winter is going to be no picnic. We are probably two years out before this infrastructure is built so we have reliability," Sununu said.
In reference to housing, the governor said he wished more communities had taken the incentives he offered to create more affordable housing.
"The money is there. What I was trying to do with Invest NH was to give a lot of money to the cities and towns to create investments; it has worked a little bit. Some towns still are kind of rejecting it," Sununu said.
Last year, Sununu used $100 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act grants to create Invest NH. He wanted to spend half of it to create incentives for cities and towns to approve more housing projects.
GOP candidates
Sununu said there should be 54 Republicans in the U.S. Senate, but the GOP failed to gain seats in the midterm due to the poor quality of candidates.
"I would never call them crazy, crazy candidates; that wouldn't be appropriate or polite," Sununu quipped. "I couldn't call them crazy but they're crazy, they were really bad candidates."
In 2022, Sununu had endorsed then-Senate President Chuck Morse for the U.S. Senate, but he lost the GOP primary to retired-Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc of Stratham.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., defeated Bolduc in the general election last November.
Over the weekend, Sununu, mulling a presidential bid, said the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump would only enhance his standing among GOP voters.
On the war in Ukraine, Sununu said opposing Russia's aggression is in America's national interest and the U.S. cannot drop its commitment to help Ukraine rebuff Russia.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another potential 2024 GOP hopeful, has called Ukraine a "territorial" dispute.
